A Letter from the Past
I am pleased and honored to share with our readers another document from the past, a letter written in the August of 1956 by Maria, a girl from Mugnano del Cardinale (Avellino, Italy) who was migrating to the United States with her parents. Maria wrote this letter to Salvatore, her fiancée and future husband, and she told him about the travel by boat.
This letter is touching because Maria was very sad to leave Salvatore behind, but of course she had to follow her family in that travel towards a better future in America. and more specifically in Cincinnati, where the family settled. Unfortunately, Maria experienced seasickness throughout the travel, a circumstance that certainly did not improve her mood.
Aside from the personal story, the letter provides important historical details about the travel itinerary and logistics. Thanks to an online research, I was able to trace the ship mentioned on the header: the Conte Grande, a transatlantic vessel build in 1927 who travelled from Genoa to Naples to New York. From 1932 to 1940, the company that owned the ship, “Lloyd Sabaudo”, merged with the company “Italia Flotte Riunite”, and Conte Grande was destined to routes from Italy to South America. When Italy entered in the Second World War in 1940, the ship remained stuck in Santos, Brazil, for two years, from 1940 to 1942. During that time the crew worked in hotels and restaurants, until the relationship between Brazil and the countries of the Axis (Germany, Italy, and Japan) deteriorated. In 1942 Brazil entered the war with the Allied Forces against Germany and Italy; the ship was sequestered, and the members of the crew were arrested and sent to San Paulo.
In 1942, the Conte Grande was sold by Brazil to the United States; with the new name USS Monticello, the ship was used as a troop transport until the end of the war. In 1946 it was retired from service. The story of this ship, however, was not finished. Following a confidential negotiation between President Truman and the Italian Prime Minister Alcide De Gasperi, the U.S. returned the ship to Italy, and re-took its original name Conte Grande. The ship started again to carry passengers from Italy to America in 1947 until 1962, when it was demolished in La Spezia, Italy.
Here is the translation of the letter made by me. Many thanks to Teresa Dugan for allowing us to make this letter available as part of the Italian American Collective project.
August 30, 1956
Dearest Salvatore,
I am writing you these few lines to let you know that the travel is not that bad. Yesterday we spent the entire day in bed. I didn’t even eat because the sea was a little rough, my head was spinning and I did not feel like eating.
Today it is four days that I am far from you; to me it seems like a year. I can’t accept to stay far from you and from your family. Dear Salvatore, on Tuesday we arrived in Genoa at 8 in the morning. At 9 we all went out together, even the daughter of Pappano. While we were walking, we met Simone and we went to visit the cemetery with him, and it was beautiful. On our way back we went to eat at the restaurant, then at 7:30 we were back on the ship and Simone walked us to the dock. Maybe tomorrow you will receive my letter that I wrote the day before; I had to send it because the ship stops for only an hour.
Dear Salvatore, if I knew that I had to go through all this, first that I miss you and then that the sea makes me sick, I wouldn’t have gone to America even if I had to die. I hope that when I am in America I will get used to it, because otherwise it will be a problem to be alone without you. If I resist I will make a sacrifice, so I hope this year passes quickly and I come back again with you all. Today is Thursday, when I was home [in Italy] I was waiting for you to come [on Thursdays], but now I have no hope. I would like to be a bird to fly to you, even only to say hi and kiss you and mom and dad and the in-laws. Greetings from my dad to all of you and say hi to those who ask about me.
Kisses kisses. Yours Forever
Maria
Source: https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conte_Grande_(transatlantico)